Absorbent bandage.



No. 810,131. PATENTBD JAN. 16, 1906. W. R. GREEN.

ABSORBENT BANDAGE.

APPLIOATON FILED JUNE 13, 1904.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEEioE.

WILLARD R. GREEN, OF MUSCATINE, IOWA, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN ABSORBENT FIBER COMPANY, OF PORTLAND, MAINE, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

No.81o,131.

Specication of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 16, 1906.

Application iiled June 13, 1904. SerialNo. 212,276.

T0 all whom t may con/cern:

Be it known that I, VILLARD R. GREEN, a citizen of the United States, residing in Muscatine, in the county of Muscatine and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Absorbent Bandages, of which the following is a speciiication.

This invention relates to a class of' manufacture known as absorbent bandages]7 and has for an object to provide a bandage wherein the cost of the bandages will be made relatively low and wherein considerable saving of material will be had and particularly al bandage especially adapted for readily receiving and readily disposing of comparatively large amounts of material for absorption.

One of the objects and advantages sought to be obtained by means oi the present improvement is to provide for the manufacture of the bandages at a low cost and for the use in such manufacture of materials of a loW cost and employed in a minimum quantity. For this purpose and also to provide for a high degree of receptivity and distributive capacity, but especially to reduce the amount of absorptive material which would otherwise be required in a bandage of a given and proper bulk or size, I employ such a construction of the component members of the bandage as will secure a considerable proportionate amount of open space in the nature of chamber-space or cell-space, these spaces serving in part as receptacles for the quick reception of a considerable amount of fluid or semlfluid material and also serving as distributive means for transmitting the same more gradually to the absorptive portions of the bandage. Also such space or spaces will in general serve to finally receive and. retain portions of material which would otherwise have to be taken up by the absorptive or lbrous portions of the bandage. The cellspace member receives the material for absorption and distributes it to the absorptive mass of iiber stock and prevents the tendency of such iibrous absorbent to mat at the receiving-surface, (such matting over would be attended by a sealing of the entire mass against absorption,) and,upon the other hand, the cell-space or chamber-space member rests but lightly in most instances upon the absorptive mass, and consequently will not seal the mass by compressing the surface Abeyond the state of compression at which the absorptive capacity of the mass is present in a relatively high degree.

The upper or middle portion ofthe absorbent body of the article consists of a chamberspace divided by walls disposed in some suitable arrangement or organization to form cell-spaces, and below said chamber-space and preferably extending upward some distance along the sides thereoil is a body or mass of material preferably composed of suitable strand-like and fiber-like substances mingled together, this material having fluidreceiving interstices or retention-cells, whereby it is adapted for receiving and retaining the more'fluid portions of the materials to be retained in the article while the thicker and coagulative portions are largely retained in the more open cell-spaces of the receivingchamber, `for which purposes said chamberspace may be divided, as already stated, into relatively separate or superposed sets of zones of cell-spaces.

A further feature of the improvement relates to the particular construction and arrangement of the successive sets of cellspaces with each other and the combinations of the same with the other elements of the complete article.

The bandage may be considered as embracing a portion comprising a plurality of coacting intercommunicating cell-spaces and another portion as comprising a plurality of unorganized cells, the unorganized cellular portion being in the present illustration the absorptive mass 14 and the organized portion being the chamber divided by its cell-forming walls.

The cells'will generally have sufficient unyieldability to withstand crushing and retain material which reposes within them and when the absorptive mass is yieldable to receive material momentarily pressed out of such mass.

The cell-spaces permit of the reception of a large quantity of material and the retention oi a large quantity of ooagulative material after the more fluid portions have been absorbed and disposed of by the absorptive mass.

In the drawings accompanying and forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 illustrates in perspective view a form in which the bandage may be made up. Fig. 2 is a crosssection thereof on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1 and illustrates a form of construction for the bandage. Fig. 3 is a portion of a longitudinal section on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2, and Figs. 4, 5, and 6 represent in perspective members which enter into the construction of the bandage.

The receiving and absorptive portions of the bandage areincased within a coversheet 10, which may be made of some suitable material wrapped about the absorptive and receiving portions of the bandage and having an opening at the receiving-face. The sides 11 and 12 of the ends may be lapped one upon the .other to provide suitable securing members, and such lapping may be hel'd in place by suitable stitching or other securing means 13. At the bottom and sides of the cover-sheet is placed a mass of absorptive material, (designated by 14,) and which mass may be slightly compacted or sufficiently compacted to produce a proper interaction between the-parts analogous to capillary attraction, whereby fluids received in one portion of the absorptive mass will be transferred Oto other portions to enable the proper distribution of such material, and between the opening in the coversheet and such absorptive mass a chamberspace is provided, which is shown as divided up into a number of smaller cells or chambers, some of which may be disposed transversely of the bandage upon a plane horizontal to the face of the opening and some of which may be disposed perpendicularl y therein, whereby the material for absorption will be received and distributed and held until properly distributed and taken up by the absorptive mass and the overplus and particularly the coagulative portions retained within the cell-spaces. The first of the members to receive the material for distribution is in the present instance a member designated in a general way by 15 and shown in Fig. 4, which member comprises in the present instance a corrugated sheet 16, which may be of some form of paper-stock or strawboard corrugated and provided with perforationsl 17 and covered upon one or both of its sides with a coarse Woven fabric 18, which fabric may be secured to the summits of the corrugations and hold Athe same from distortion and as the corrugations lie crossWise of the bandage will prevent longitudinal extension of such member vand of the bandage, thereby producing an amount of stability. It will also be seen that this member lying as it does at the opening of th'e bandage and transversely disposed as to its ribs Will prevent the closing of the receiving-opening of the bandage by side pressure and constitutes a side brace to prevent the collapse of the bandage, which collapse of course would prevent the reception of material within the bandage and would also were the same satu- 6 5 rated to a considerable extent With fluid or semifluid material express such material, and i thereby defeat the object of the bandage. The means, broadly, for keeping the bandage distended, including the corrugated and perforated side bracing members, are claimed in my copending application, Serial No. 211,926, filed June 10, 1904. The opening to the bandage may be provided with a suitable cover or receiving-sheet 1 9, made of some fabric adapted to readily pass the material for absorption which will be delivered to the bandage through the receiving member 15. This,

cover-sheet of course need not in allinstances be employed. It will, however, be seen that the flexure of the bandage incident to movements when it is in use will, owing to the organization of the member 15 cause a certain amount of movement or scraping between the cover-sheet 19 and the uppermost sheet 18 or between the member 15 however constructed, which will have a tendency to facilitate the taking up of the material received upon the respective sheets.

In Fig. 5 is represented a form of cell-space member which is comprised of a vplurality of thin narrow strips 20, bent somewhat after the order of a Greek border and arranged side by side to produce a plurality of cells 21.

This member is designated for convenience in a general way by 22 and is located beneath the member 15, with its cells transversely to the cell or chamber spaces 16, (and is adapted to receive the material therefrom. The member 22 supports the member 15 and is flexible in three cardinal directions-viz., in that of its length, its breadth, and its thickness-and is compressible in only two directions, length and breadththat is, it is compressible longitudinally and transversely, but is not compressible in the direction of its thickness. `The member designated in a general way by 23 is interposed between such cell-space member 22 and the brous material 14 at the bottom of the bandage. This latter member is made of a sheet of some suitable material having openings and may be some paper or strawboard stock or may be made of soda stock and is bent so that in cross-section it is somewhat analogous to a Greek border, it having chamber-spaces 24 upon its upper side and chamber-spaces 25 upon its lower side and in the present illustration is numerously perforated, as at 26. It will be observed that theside portions of theabsorbent mass come over the edges or sides of these respective spaceforming members, so that any material laterally distributed thereby will be taken up and properly disposed of by the absorbent mass. The various space members not only receive and retain the material delivered to the bandage, but distribute it in such manner that it will b e evenly taken up and the full absorptive capacity of the absorptive mass utilized.

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It will be seen from the illustration and the foregoing description that a bandage is produced having substantially the minimum amount of absorptive material in a bandage of a given size and that the chamber-space is utilized not only for the containing of receiving and distributing agencies, but for means to reduce the amount of material entering into the bandage without decreasing its efficiency, but upon the other hand adding elements to the bandage which will greatly assist in the working of the absorptive mass and will present receptacles for material which the absorptive mass is incapable of disposing of.

The member 23 as herein constructed is incapable of compression transversely of the bandage, but will yield longitudinally and perpendicularly, which, owing to the peculiarity of the yieldability of the intermediate member 22, will produce between the various members ofthe bandage a scraping and moving which will work the material received at the various junctures and greatly facilitate its final disposition.

ln some instances the absorptive mass 14 may be reduced to a comparatively thin layer below and around the cell-space members and in some instances may be omitted, in which case we have a chamber-space divided off into a number of cells or chambers for receiving and retaining the material for absorption. When the mass, as 14, is present, however, in some cases, it may be a mass of material either absorbent or otherwise and of suflicient thickness to cushion the bottom and sides of the cell-space-forming member.

I do not claim herein broadly a corrugated bracing member or a corrugated and perforated bearing member, as this constitutes in part the subject-matter of my copending application, Serial No. 211,926, filed June 10, 1.904; nor do I claim herein the feature of this bracing or cellular member having an openinesh fabric about it, as this constitutes in part the subject-matter of my conending application, Serial No. 211,930, led June 10, 1904.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- 1. An absorbent bandage comprising an absorptive mass, a plurality of members imposed thereon and each provided with chambers or spaces located transversely of the bandage, and a member also having cells or spaces located transversely to the chambers or spaces of its companion members, and separating said first members.

2. An absorbent bandage made up of an absorptive material and a plurality of members having an organized arrangement of cells or chambers, a series of which arelocated transversely to a series of companion cells or chambers.

3. A bandage comprising a cover-sheet, a

body of absorptive material having a chamber-space within it and a corrugated member wi thin such chamber-space having coarsemesh fabric fastened to its upper side, and a coarse-mesh receiving fabric at the opening of the cover-sheet and adjacent to the fabric upon the corrugated member. y

4. In a bandage, the combination with a cover-sheet having an opening, of a mass of absorptive material within the cover-sheet and having a chamber-space located at such opening, a member adapted to brace such openingl from sidewise closure and yieldable transversely, a cell-space-forming member beneath the same and readily flexible, and compressible longitudinally and transversely of the bandage, but non-compressible perpendicularly, and a member between such cell-space member and the absorptive material and comprising a folded perforated sheet having transverse troughs, some open directly to such cell-spaces and some open directly to the absorptive material and yieldable upon lines transverse of the bandage.

5. A bandage comprising a supporting member and a mass of material having an organized arrangement of coacting and communicating cells or chambers.

6. A bandage made up of a cover-sheath, an absorptive material so carried therein as to form a chamber, and means located in said chamber and dividing it up into an organized series of cells or spaces.

7. A bandage made up of a cover-sheath, an absorptive material so carried therein as to form a chamber and means located in said chamber and dividing it up into an organized series of cells or spaces, some of which are readily compressible in one direction but not in another, while others of which are readily compressible in a direction different from that in which their companion cells or spaces are compressible.

8. An absorbent bandage comprising a supporting member having within it an absorbent mass of material having unorganized interstices, and a mass of material having an organized series of cells or chambers, a part of such cell or chamber formed mass being so located as to keep` the supporting member distended throughout a portion thereof to permit the passage of fluid to the absorbent mass.

9. An absorbent bandage made up of a mass of material having a series of capillary interstices for receiving the more fluid parts of the material for absorption and an organized cell-spaced means having comparatively larger cells for receiving the thicker fluids and chamber-cells for receiving and retaining the coagulative portions, the organization being such that one series of cells or chambers is located transversely to another.

10. In an absorbent bandage, the combination with a lower member consisting of ab- IOO IIO

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sorptive material, of an upper member having chambers communicating with each other through openings for ventilation and for the passage of fluids and comprising resistance portions disposed transversely thereof for side bracing the bandage, and a flexible cellular and laterally-compressible intermediate member.

11. In a bandage, the combination with a mass of absorptive material, of a cover-sheet to support the same, a receiving-sheet of open-mesh material, a cell-spaced body in such absorptive mass, and a body having transverse corrugations disposed upon such cell-spaced body. 12. In a bandage, the combination with a mass of absorptive material, of a body comprising cells therein, Y a body comprising transverse passages upon its respective sides and intersected by perforations and resting upon such cellular body, portions of the absorptive mass being disposed at the ends of such chambers.

13. In an absorbent bandage, the combination with a mass of absorptive material, of

a member supported thereabove and con-- sisting of a sheet of material shaped to form two series of chambers, one series above and the other series below such sheet.

14. In an absorbent bandage, the combination with a cover-sheet having'a receivingopening, of a lower member therein consisting of a mass of absorptive material, and an upper member situate at said opening and comprising a series of chambers having openings communicating downwardly between said chambers and the absorbent material, and also having openings communicating laterally between successive chambers whereby said chambers serve the purpose of conduits for transmitting iiuids downwardly to the lower member and also serve as means for ventilation of the bandage.

15. In a bandage, the combination with a body of absorptive material and a member thereabove comprised of a perforated corrugated sheet having a coarse-mesh fabric secured upon the summits of the corrugations.

Signed at Nos. 9 to 15 Murray street, New York, N. Y., this 11th day of June, 1904.

, WILLARD R. GREEN.

Witnesses:

FRED. J. DOLE, JOHN O. SEIFERT-| 

